Sarris: We should forget about Celtic
Greek defender says Accies must focus on themselves
Georgios Sarris has told his Hamilton team-mates to forget about Celtic and focus on themselves.
The big Greek defender is only too aware of Celtic’s threat, but says focusing on their own performances and keeping concentration can be key for Accies.
Former AEK stopper Sarris (28), who joined from Turkish side Kayseri Erciyesspor last season, is no stranger to big games, but says it’s not just Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen that come under that category.
He said: “We believe in ourselves, in our team, and that’s all we need to do.
“In football you need only think about yourselves, you don’t need to think about the opponents.
“For me, I’m not thinking about playing home or away, or even the team we’re going to play – first of all we have to think about ourselves, to be good, to be fit and concentrate.
“But if you play with teams like Celtic they can punish you for the smallest mistake that you make in a game, so we have to keep it tight at the back and not make any mistakes.
“After the start we have made to the season we can go into the game with a bit of confidence, but sometimes if you are overconfident maybe that can be bad, so we need to be calm in ourselves and in our minds, and think about only the game and don’t be overawed.
“It’s not a big game only against Celtic, Rangers or Aberdeen – all games for us as a team and individually have to be big games, it’s the good mentality, you have to see every game the same and be 100 per cent concentrated and go for a win in every game.”
Celtic went through the entire season undefeated in domestic competition, including a 1-0 and 2-0 win at Celtic Park either side of a 3-0 triumph at Hamilton, but Sarris says there are positives to take from their performances against the Glasgow giants.
He said: “How we play is important, and now that I’m thinking about last season’s games against Celtic, and in Celtic Park, we’ve been really good. We had three chances in the last 15 minutes of the first game when the score was 1-0.
“At home against Celtic we played really well but they punished us with three goals, and in my opinion the score is not correct, and we could have taken something from both those games.
“Now, it’s going to be a completely different game, and every game is different anyway. We have to speak with the gaffer and watch the video, look at how they play, how we’ve going to play, and concentrate.
“I hope now everything goes OK and we believe in ourselves.”
In football you need only think about yourselves